Julia Smith
Julia Smith (26th May 1927 - 19th June 1997) was an experienced BBC television producer and director who, alongside Tony Holland, created the successful soap opera EastEnders. In total, Smith directed 22 'episodes of the show between October 1985 and February 1989. Julia began her career in theatre and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. From then onwards, Julia took on the multi-tasking role of stage management and worked for various repertory companies in which she toured the UK. Julia's television break came along when she began working for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and one particular job she took on for the theatre earned her that break. She was asked to go to Paris to stage manage a play in which the BBC were going to televise, and an official from BBC productions was so intrigued by her work that he asked Julia to stage manage the actual play that was to be televised on the BBC. Julia then worked as an assistant floor manager, with aspirations to become a production manager. However, in those days it was very tricky for a woman to earn such a position as the role of a production manager was thought to be a man's job. Because of this, Julia decided to leave the BBC behind and returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company, working in Stratford-upon-Avon. Despite the possibility of Julia ever becoming a production manager for the BBC incredibly small, she was very much wrong. Whilst she was working for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the BBC got back in contact with Julia and asked her to return as a production manager, as while Julia was away working with the Shakespeare company, the first woman had been occupied as a production manager. From then onwards, Julia began working on BBC productions such as ''Pride and Prejudice, before deciding to take the next step in her television career and commence training to become a director via a director's training course. One of her earliest directing contributions was to the BBC production Dr Finlay's Casebook. A prominent contribution in Julia's career was her work on the top-rated sci-fi series Doctor Who, in which she directed the stories The Smugglers and The Underwater Menace. She then went on to direct episodes of Z Cars ''(which was the first time she worked alongside Tony Holland), ''Spytrap, The Railway Children and Angels, the latter of which she later became the producer of the serial, which was when her partnership with Tony Holland kick-started. Julia and Tony then went into partnership and devised the series The District Nurse, which was the tale about a nurse practising her career in Wales in the 1930s. Afterwards, Julia's most prominent contribution to television came about, when the BBC appointed both her and Tony to create a drama serial that would air fifty-two weeks a year and would attract the same kind of mass audience ITV was getting with Coronation Street. EastEnders It wasn't long before ideas became facts, and letters become actions as Julia and Tony penned out the twenty-three characters that would live in the fictional world of Walford. The original idea of EastEnders was that it was going to be based in either a caravan park or a shopping arcade. These ideas that were presented by the BBC; however, Julia and Tony liked none of the ideas and instead decided to create the programme based in the East End of London. The initial launch date was scheduled for January 1985, and one of the pairs first contributions came about when they both went into the heart of the East End to get a feel of what it was like. They soon travelled to Lanzarote to pen biographies for the twenty-three characters that would live in their Square. Tony was responsible for creating the Matriarch family of the show, while Julia focused more on 'the outsiders' such as Naima and Saeed Jeffery, but still taking on the exceeding role of creating the iconic characters of Den and Angie Watts. With the help of production designer Keith Harris, it wasn't long before the pair had a place to film the drama serial, and EastEnders soon grew very much to life, as on the 19th February 1985, the first episode went out on transmission on the BBC at 7.00pm. Julia and Tony didn't watch the episode along with the nation though. Instead, the pair waited anxiously in the bar in which they first created the idea of EastEnders. Julia remained as the producer of the show for a further two years, before being appointed the role of series producer in early 1987. In 1988, Mike Gibbon joined the production team, and following the departure of Anita Dobson, and Leslie Grantham wanting to leave, both Julia and Tony decided their time on the show was also over. One of the pairs final contributions to the show was the 'death episode' of Den Watts, in which the viewers saw a mysterious gunshot come from a bunch of daffodils and then a huge splash before the screen faded into black, making viewers believe he was dead. This idea caused tension between Julia and the then head of series and serials', Jonathan Powell, as Julia didn't want the screen to fade to black; she wanted the viewers to see Den be killed onscreen. It was because of this Julia's directing credit was swiped from the onscreen credits. Eldorado After EastEnders, the BBC put their faith in both Julia and Tony once more, asking them to create a new soap that would once again rival long-running ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Tony took on the duty of penning the new serial, while Julia took the role of producer. The serial was set in Los Barcos in Spain and was originally planned to be called Little England before becoming Eldorado. The serial was a disaster from start to finish as scripts were forcefully written, sets were half built, and everyone was nervous. However, the BBC was so determined to reach their deadline launch date and go head to head with Coronation Street and Emmerdale, that despite the production not being complete, the series began airing anyway. After a few weeks of transmission, it became apparent that the show was failing, and as a result Julia was axed as the show's producer and Corinne Hollingworth was appointed instead. Because of this, Julia suffered a nervous breakdown before retiring from television altogether. A few years later, in 1997, Julia passed away after suffering from cancer. Episodes directed by Julia Smith '''1985 (3 episodes) *Episode 65 (1st October 1985) *Episode 66 (3rd October 1985) *Episode 91 (31st December 1985) 1986 (6 episodes) *Episode 92 (2nd January 1986) *Episode 183 (18th November 1986) *Episode 184 (20th November 1986) *Episode 185 (25th November 1986) *Episode 194 (25th December 1986) *Episode 195 (25th December 1986) 1987 (5 episodes) *Episode 280 (20th October 1987) *Episode 281 (22nd October 1987) *Episode 301 (29th December 1987) *Episode 302 (31st December 1987) *Episode 303 (31st December 1987) 1988 (5 episodes) *Episode 361 (21st July 1988) *Episode 362 (26th July 1988) *Episode 363 (28th July 1988) *Episode 377 (15th September 1988) *Episode 405 (22nd December 1988) 1989 (3 episodes) *Episode 409 (5th January 1989) *Episode 422 (21st February 1989) *Episode 423 (23rd February 1989) (Uncredited) Other EastEnders related works *CivvyStreet (1988) Category:EastEnders producers Category:EastEnders directors